The Atharvaveda (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Atharvaveda

2. Relative chronology of the popular and hieratic literatures. - Anyhow this difference of nomenclature between the three Vedas on the one side and the Atharvan on the other is an important and profound one in the history of Vedic literature. Leaving aside the beginnings of speculative theosophic literature which are represented freely in both types (Rv. and Av.), we are lead to two main divisions of Vedic literature, the three Vedas with their soma-sacrifices, and the Av. with the house-ceremonies (grhya) i.e., respectively, the hieratic and the popular religion. The statement put in this form is of importance for the relative chronology of the Atharvan writings: it becomes evident at once, and from the ethnological point of view a fortiore that there can have been no period of Vedic history in which house-customs and mantras of essentially Atharvanic character were wanting,; while at the same time the more elaborate hieratic mantras and soma-sacrifices were present. In fact, in some form or other both are prehistoric. The hieratic religion joins the Avestan haoma-worship; the Atharvanic charms and practices are very likely rooted in an even earlier, perhaps Indo-European, antiquity. At least, he who does not regard the analoga between Atharvanic charms and practices and those of the Teutonic and other I.E. peoples as entirely accidental (anthropological) must hesitate to ascribe all the mantras of the Av. and Grhyasutras to a late Vedic period. In the case of some, e.g. the wedding-charms and the funeral hymns, this is manifestly impossible; it is not less so in the case of at least some hymns embodied in the Av. Samhitas alone, as, e, g. 4. 12.This point of view gains much firmness from a complete survey of the vast armory of charms, blessings, and curses contained in the Av., such as may be gained by reading over the analysis of the vulgate as given in this book (Part Iii). What is the nature of the impulse which created e…